Darf's mal wieder historisch sein?

Dieses Projekt liegt zwar schon etwas länger zurück, aber was soll's. Kurz vor meinem Geburtstag im April kündigte die Dreamstress für Scroop-Patterns einen Sale an. Da ich schon etwas länger um den Fantail-Skirt herumschlich, nahm ich das als ein Zeichen und bestellte die Vollversion (Jahrhundertwende + 1940er), es soll sich ja auch lohnen.

This project goes a bit further back, but whatever. Shortly before my birthday in April, the Dreamstress announced a sale for Scroop-Patterns. Since I'd had my eye on the Fantail-Skirt for a while even before that, I took it as a sign and ordered the full version (turn of the century + 1940's), to make it worth my while.

Ich habe tatsächlich ein sehr spezifisches Kostüm mit diesem Rock geplant, deshalb habe ich mir die graue Baumwolle gleich im reduzierten 6m Paket von buttinette.de bestellt. 

Ich bin etwas größer als die Durchschnittsfrau, und wollte auf alle Fälle einen bodenlangen Rock (kürzen kann man immer), deshalb habe ich die Schnittmusterstücke gleich um 10cm verlängert.

I'm actually planning a very specific costume to go with this skirt, which is why I ordered the grey cotton as a discounted 6m-bundle from buttinette.de.

I'm a bit taller than the average woman, but wanted very much for the skirt to be floor-length (you can always shorten it later), so I lengthened the pattern-pieces by 10cm right away.

Die Anleitung war gut geschrieben, und das Zusammennähen verlief fast problemlos. Aus irgendeinem Grund war am Ende die Taillenlinie des Rockes 3cm länger als der Bund, was ich durch zwei winzige Falten neben den beiden Front-Nähten behoben habe. Das fällt nicht negativ auf, hat mich aber auf die Idee gebracht, dass ich da Taschen gut hätte verstecken können - und Taschen sind immer praktisch. Naja, vielleicht später noch.

The instructions were very clear, and assembly went off almost without a hitch. For some reason, the waistline of the skirt ended up being 3cm longer than the waistband, but I fixed that with two tiny pleats right next to the two front seams. It doesn't negatively impact the look of the thing, but gave me the idea that those pleats would have been perfect to hide pockets - and pockets are always good to have. Ah well, maybe I'll add some later on.

Der fertige Rock war leider etwas schlaff und traurig, und überhaupt nicht so toll, wie ich ihn mir vorgestellt hatte. Zum Glück habe ich aber oft genug gelesen, dass die Basis bei historischen Kostümen 3/4 des looks ausmacht, und ließ mich davon nicht entmutigen. Am nächsten Tag bin ich zum Ikea gefahren, habe 4 oder 5m weißen Baumwollstoff geholt, und mit dem selben Schnittmuster einen Unterrock genäht. Der Unterrock ist hinten gerafft statt gefaltet, um mehr Volumen zu geben (und weil das einfacher war), und verfügt über eine 7m lange, 35cm breite geraffte Rüsche. Die Rüsche ist mit Maschine versäumt (weil das bei geraden Stoffbahnen am einfachsten ist), und mit Häkelspitze aus dem Ein-Euro-Shop verziert. Die runden Rocksäume sowohl des grauen- als auch des Unterrocks sind von Hand mit Hexenstich gesäumt.

Unfortunately, the finished skirt was a bit limp and sad and not at all as awesome as I had imagined it. Luckily, I've read often enough that in historical costumes, the foundations make or break the look, and wasn't discouraged. The next day I went to Ikea and got 4 or 5m of white cotton and made a petticoat from the same pattern. The petticoat is gathered instead of pleated in the back, to give more volume (and because it's easier to do), and has a 7m long, 35cm deep ruffle. The ruffle is hemmed by machine (because that's easiest to do with long, straight pieces of fabric) and trimmed with crochet-lace from the dollar-store. The rounded hems of both the grey skirt and the petticoat are hemmed by hand with herringbone-stitch. 

Das sieht doch schon viel besser aus, oder?

Das Unterhemd besteht übrigens aus einer gehäkelten Passe und einem Baumwoll-"Schlauch", der durch Biesen vorne und hinten ein wenig in Form gebracht wird, und ist komplett handgemacht. 

Doesn't this look a lot better?

The chemise, by the way, consists of a crochet yoke and a cotton "tube" that is shaped with pintucks in the front and back, and is completely handmade. 

Die Röcke sehen toll aus, und es macht Spaß, mit so viel Stoff um die Beine herum zu laufen. Für das geplante Kostüm fehlt jetzt noch ein Korsett und ein Oberteil, wenn ich das habe, werde ich auch verraten, was das ganze werden soll. Außerdem habe ich mir überlegt, dass der Rock in hellblau mit entsprechendem Oberteil (+ Hemd und Korsett) auch ein sehr tolles Westworld-Kostüm abgeben würde. Muss ich für die Fasnet auf alle Fälle im Kopf behalten.

The skirts (in combination) look fantastic, and it's a lot of fun to walk around with that much fabric swinging around my legs. For the planned costume I still need a corset and a bodice, once I've got that, I'll tell you what it's supposed to be. I also thought that the skirt, in a light blue and with the appropriate bodice (+ the chemise and corset) would make a good Westworld-costume. I have to keep that in mind for the upcoming carnival.

What I've been doing lately...

Lace. Lots of Lace.

Pattern found here, scroll down and you should be able to find it. I love drawn instructions, so much easier to follow than written ones... In any case, the pattern repeats itself every four rows, so I knew it by heart pretty quickly. So far, I have about 5m of lace and still some yarn left, I kinda challenged myself to crochet the whole roll of yarn into one continuous strip of lace. I already finished all four seasons of raising hope while crocheting, so this is gonna take some time, but I like having an easy continuous project for things like watching tv, riding the train etc. I just have to see if I can make something cool/pretty/useful out of it when I'm done. Hm...
In other news, I have some plans for a shirt/tunic for the summer (fabric's bought, you'll see more when it's out of the wash) which will feature some embroidery. While I love the look of blackwork I don't feel up for counted thread embroidery on a finely woven fabric and even after some considerable time couldn't find a decent pattern (or any pattern, actually) for the later, more curved and freely flowing (floral) designs, I looked for other inspiration.
I've dabbled in Circular Gallifreyan before, but it's hard to do nicely by hand, so tonight I busted out the computer - and Paint. Really, I tried Gimp, but it just wouldn't give me a tool do draw circle shapes! Anyway, because I wanted it evenly, I drew 3 different sizes of circles and after that only used the copy/paste/move tool, the eraser and sometimes brush (for the dots). Oh, and the straight lines tool, because who the hell could ever draw a straight line with a mouse :)
I used the "A good man goes to war" poem from the Doctor Who episode of the same name, here's the first verse:

Don't worry about the writing at the top, I do know how to spell, it just helps visualizing how many circles you need when you write it out that way.
It was quite fun to make and I'll certainly do the rest of the poem as well. I think it would make a nice pattern as embellishment for collar, cuffs or hem of a simple white shirt.
That's all for today! Have a happy Easter, everyone :)

Edit: I did the whole poem! Yay!

Buchlinge

Short post, so you guys know I'm still alive. I finished my corset and will put up some pictures soon, although I'm not completely happy with it and consider changing some things. Other than that, there hasn't been a lot of sewing possible the last few weeks since the room (and cupboard) I keep my sewing things in have been occupied due to my parents' remodeling our kitchen. So I turned to knitting - a scarf for my mother, possibly as a Christmas gift - so shhh! :)

Gotta love the colour.

This is the pattern I used.
Because I (obviously) can't work on the scarf when my mother is in the room, I started another knitting project for when we're watching TV together: knitted sleeves. The dreamstress made a blogpost about her regency sleeve mitts, and, unlike her, I knit, so I figured this would be a nice and easy project. It won't be historically accurate at all, and I'm using rather thick wool, but this way I a) don't lose patience halfway through and b) can even wear them with my modern day clothes this winter (or at least I hope so). So far, I've got about half a sleeve, so I haven't taken any pictures yet.
Things I did take pictures of: Buchlinge! For the absolutely confused among you: Buchlinge (booklings) are characters from a novel by one of my favourite authors, Walter Moers. I started reading his books after a friend's recommendation, and since then, usually got that friend something Moers-related for his birthday. There haven't been any new books recently, so what to get him? I was getting kind of desperate since his birthday is this weekend, but then I got the idea: make him a couple of booklings! Freehand-amigurmi worked pretty good for the tiny minion, so why not for a bookling? The shape is pretty basic, but recognizable, so today I sat down with some blue and purple yarn and tried it. Lo and behold, the booklings:

I made the purple one second, so it's neater, but as the book says they come in all shapes and sizes, I don't sweat the difference. That's actually a tiny book they're holding, made out of cut up paper, cardboard, fabric and lots of glue - but if you want my advice, refrain from tiny bookmaking without having the proper tools, I ruined a needle while sewing the pages together ;)
I'm pretty proud of them, I hope he'll like them (and if not, I'm gonna keep them for myself! :) ).
Since our kitchen is now almost done, I think I can take hold of my sewing room again soon and will get some things done. So many ideas!

This was supposed to be a "finished things" post...

...but I haven't really finished anything recently! Well yes, I finished the yellow minion (weeks ago, before I even came home) and the stole (also weeks ago, when I went to my grandparent's) but I just didn't get around to blogging until now. Also, I don't have any nice pictures of the minion since I conveniently left it in my apartment, so here's the only snapshot I took before hurriedly packing my things and leaving for my parent's:

I gave up on finishing the purple one before Lilly's birthday, but I made a "free-hand"-amigurumi minion for one of the kids I worked with:

That's a thermos and my mother's laptop behind
him, just to give you an idea of the size

I also finally got around to taking pictures of my stole, I like how it turned out although I would have liked it a bit longer - I just gave up when my third ball of yarn was finished.

I really like how it looks from behind

Well, that ought to have caught you up to what I have finished so far. I would have loved to show you the finished green corset, but guess what: I'm about one seem away from finishing it (and have been for about a week now) but still haven't done it. Want to know why? I have two brothers and the three of us share a car, or rather a van. So when my older brother wanted to fix up the car to take it to a camping trip to Spain, of course his siblings jumped in, and since I'm not that good with the technical stuff (we have a bluetooth-connectable stereo in our twenty-year-old car, yay!) I offered to take over renewing the curtains. My brother ordered the fabric and I set to hours and hours of ironing, sewing, and ironing again. Did I mention I was ironing a lot? So, in order to pretty things up a little (and motivate myself) I created even more work for myself by deciding that every tie for the curtains had to have a little crocheted flower attached. Yay for flowers! 

Pretty little daisies... :)

My younger brother was against the flowers (probably not manly enough for an eighteen-year-old ;) ) but my older brother and I liked it, so we kept them. But crocheting, and then sewing each of the flowers onto the tie and then the tie onto the curtain by hand took time, and afterwards I didn't really feel like sewing some more for my own amusement, hence the lack of progress.

BUT!


Some progress there was, and (even if I can't show you the finished result) I'd like to show you some pictures. Before risking bright green checkered nightmares, I worked on my darker green corset. The last thing I told you was that I made one row of eyelets, here's how I did it:

I made the holes with a stretcher I usually
wear in my ear...

...then widened them with an awl i found
in my father's toolbox.

I then stitched around the holes using a thicker, dark green thread I found in my grandmother's sewing box, I think it's supposed to be used for mending socks, but I find it quite handy for lacing- or buttonholes. I put in the hooks and eyes - I know, I'm cheating -

- and tried it on. In hindsight, I really should have listened to The Laced Angel and put in some more room at the hips, but for a first try, it's not that bad, I think.

Phone-camera in a badly lit hallway...

...where could that ever go wrong?

Now all I have to do is finish the top and bottom edges, and then it'll be wearable! :) But as I said, motivation for that last seam still eludes me. Bear with me, it will get done! (someday ;) )

Minion in progress

I did promise some in-progress-pictures, didn't I? So, while granting myself a free afternoon filled with watching "The paradise", I got quite a lot of crocheting done:

Eyes and mouth pinned on, arms still missing

I ran out of yellow yarn, so I haven't done the arms yet, I'll probably get some on monday. Changes I've made to the pattern so far:

• As I said, I ran out of yellow yarn, so the body is quite a lot shorter than it's supposed to be - I stopped at round 42 of 55 straight rows
• With a shorter body, I also made the front- and backpanels of the overalls smaller (left out two lines) so as to have some room left for the face.
• I couldn't get the boots to work with that strange 12 chainstiches beginning, so I started by chaining 5 stitches, two single crochets in the second loop from the hook, 1 sc in the two following, 4sc in the loop at the end of the chain - that should bring you to the other side - 1 sc in the two following and again 2sc in the last, that gives a nice-to-work-with oval shape of 12 stitches. I then doubled all the stitches (24) and then did one more round, doubling every second stich on the curves, you can do that pretty good by eyeballing. That gave me about 30 stitches. I followed the pattern again until it came to diminishing (declining? It's abbreviated with dec.) Adjusting the pattern I had (count your stitches, divide them by two, minus four) I did 11 sc; diminished 4times and did 11sc. next round 9sc, dec. 4times, 9sc. next round 7sc, dec 4times, 7dc follow the pattern again
• I also crocheted the little black buttons (4sc on a loop, pull tight, knot off, leave two long strands to sew to your overall)
• I made the goggles out of grey felt, because I had some lying around, instead of grey yarn, which I didn't. Still looks pretty cool, though, I think :)

Since I don't think I'll go into as much detail as the original pattern, all that's left to do are the goggle straps and the arms, into which I'll try to build in some wire-understructure as to make them bendable. Oh, the fun :)
 Lilly's birthday is early in september, and if I don't get bored with them until then, I'll give her this minion plus a purple, evil one from despicable me 2.  (I'll just buy two balls of purple yarn, then I can make it in the right size plus have some left over to do that craaazy hair - Oh, what fun :) )

Minions!

I recently went to see "Despicable Me 2" with some friends, and we were literally falling out of our seats from laughing at those little yellow b**tards. Needless to say, I wanted to have my own minion! I figured I'd crochet one, amigurumi-style, since they're a pretty basic shape. Still, out of boredom, I googled how to crochet minions, and found a pattern that looks pretty good. After finishing my first exam today, I decided to treat myself to some yellow (and blue, and black) yarn and start crocheting. It's going pretty good so far, although I did use a (German) size 4 crocheting hook and appropriate yarn, so my minion will probably be twice as big as intended by the pattern maker. Then again, I'm not quite sure about the size differences in German/European and American crocheting hooks (I just know there is one), so maybe it's the intended Size. We'll see. As I have more exams coming up, I'll work on this in my down-time (so as not to go crazy from studying ;) ) and post pictures as soon as I have something to show. In the meantime, enjoy this chart I found while researching ;)